> Dungeon Status:
>
> Tier 2
> Level 32/100
>
> Heart 3,686,400/3,686,400
> Experience 261,843/921,600
> Mithril 5,560
> Adamantine 3,202
> Mana 6,420
> Poison, Greater 500
> Deadly Scorpion Venom 51
>
> Quest: Kill 11 city dwellers.
> Quest: Half populate your dungeon: Workers 46/66 | Monsters 52/67 | Traps 117/162
> Quest: Reach level 50.
Travis' attention was stolen from Alice Stormblade by someone stomping their way through his entrance. A young noblewoman (she looked mid-teens to Travis) in fine clothes had an escort of two big men, each dressed for a fight, complete with longswords at their sides and a pistol on the other. Given the amount of expensive gear the two bodyguards had, Travis expected this was a noblewoman of a significant family.
Three more people filed in behind them, each pulling a small cart behind them. All that, though, would have gone unremarked. The four and a half foot tall man at the front of the procession, shouting, was what made him take notice. "Sorry, Alice, I need to focus on someone making a scene upstairs, and I don't like those going further than a little shouting."
Standing up, Alice turned toward the entrance and started moving at a jog. "If it's anything like last time, you may wish to have a priest there."
Travis, despite his misgivings about Alice's attempts to spread her religion, decided she was a good presence to have in any tense situation—or so he'd seen so far. Even with Astrid, she hadn't tried to push her motives past Astrid's firm rejection. "Thanks, it would be appreciated."
"You will explain this nonsense immediately! My mistress is in a hurry, and forcing us into this way station with no more explanation than 'you must enter here to reach the city' is ridiculous!" The man stomped up to one of the guards and stared up at him. "You will cease this delay immediately!"
From the way he acted, Travis figured he was used to his short stature reducing the chance of an argument coming to blows. In Travis' estimation, the guards looked a little curious. "Who's hearing all this—? I mean, who's nearby?" he asked.
"Mmm. I got bored and was about to head back to my tower." Felna had picked another language to speak in, though Travis had no clue what it was. He glanced around with the lizards and spotted her leaning to a wall just outside the entrance tavern. "You have a noble lady there. I can't tell what part of the country she's from, because she hasn't spoken. The bodyguards are of mixed ethnicity, but I think both have enough experience that they would make trouble for the guards present. The noisy one is from the lands south of the capital, though I'm not sure exactly where, but his accent paints that region as his home. Do you want me to get involved, oh master of the depths of my heart?"
There were worse choices, Travis was sure. With a mental shrug, he replied, "Might as well. Remember, I got you if it goes to shit. Just hold still and let me burn everything."
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Felna levered herself from the wall, her purr rising in intensity. "You are such a darling—but don't singe my fur, please." Walking over, letting her tail twitch at the end of each sway, Felna approached the Guard sergeant who was currently letting the shorter man shout at his breastplate. "Excuse me. Might I be of some assistance in expediting things?"
The local language and vocal tics were easy enough for Felna to emulate, and she did so with a steadiness that she hoped would redirect the man's ire toward herself instead. Both men turned to look at her at the same time, a pastime Felna often enjoyed, but in this case one looked like he had just won a battle—the other tried to hide the relief on his.
"This oaf insisted we had to enter your—your barn before we could head on toward the city." Looking up at the cat kin, Harold felt at least some of his fury lessen. After all, the guard he'd been yelling at seemed to defer to this noblewoman, so she must be at least somewhat in charge.
"Understandable. Please follow me." Turning, nodding to the guard and winking, she walked toward the city-side exit of the dungeon. "This is where our VIP guests pass through, you understand. I wouldn't want you to think the common riffraff enjoy the careful guarding of our finest." As she sashayed, her tail doing a triple flick at each swish, Felna noticed the guards now all trying to avoid laughing.
As Felna reached the doors leading out into the city, she turned and looked back at the group of travelers. "As you can see, for very important guests to the city, we employ the most advanced and undetectable teleportation systems. Even the greatest of wizards struggle to detect the subtle moment when it works."
"Your services have been adequate." Stepping out of the double doors, Harold felt a lightening of the air, as if simply breathing became easier. There was something about the whole experience that offended his sensibilities, but he couldn't deny that the teleportation system employed had cut time off their journey. He also mused that, if used for everyone, would be an excellent way to properly filter who could and couldn't enter the city.
Felna employed her greatest talents as the group moved past her: her sight, her olfactory, and her brain. The guards of the noblewoman looked competent with their tools and, she judged, more than up to killing a lot of guards should they be called upon to do so. The noble herself kept her eyes ahead and advanced with slow steps that the guards matched. They all smelled exactly how she'd expected—the sweaty-weary smell of people who had spent long hours on the road, poorly covered by floral scents.
As the last of the three wagons passed, though, she spotted something on the ground by her foot. Shifting only slightly, she covered it until the group had left the vicinity of the dungeon entrances.
> I seek your aid. Please follow at a reasonable distance. You will be well rewarded.
>
> Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.
Speaking again in the native tongue of a since-dead tribe of cat kin, Felna held the note open for long enough that she was sure her patron had seen, then screwed it up into a tiny ball and called enough heat to her palm to destroy it. "Travis, could you ask the lady Penelope to be ready should I need her? I'm going to investigate this."
"Be careful. You have a talisman?" Travis asked, and called out to Penelope on top of the tower, "Something weird just happened. A noble entered the city and someone in their group dropped a note asking Felna for help. Can you make sure you can see where she is as she follows them to find out?"
Outside the dungeon, Felna rolled her shoulders and nodded her head slightly. "I'm going for a walk," she told the guards. "If another hard case arrives, let Travis know. He'll get someone up here to deal with them." As she got nods from them, she noticed the high priestess of Brogdar entered the hall and slipped away before she got caught up talking.
Normally, Felna preferred to do her people-watching from a bit more distance, with her eyes closed, in a sunny spot— She let out a sigh as she followed the noble and her entourage. "This is boring. Travis, can you hear me?"
"Yeah. Can you hear me?" Travis saw the view bob a little. "Right, because you're a boss-cohort. We need to make everyone like that if we can. It's useful."
Felna couldn't help but purr as she walked; verbally sparring with Travis had become her favorite pastime. "I'm useful now, am I?"
"You know what I mean, Felna. You're so much more than useful. I'm pretty sure that mage tower would fly away if you didn't keep it pinned down so well."
Pausing a moment in surprise, Felna chuckled at the joke. "That's a point to you, Travis. Oh, this is interesting. They're walking into that house right there as if they own it. Can you get someone to check the council records to see who owns it?"
"I've got a copy of most of the records here. Millie is going through them now for you."
Felna focused on the building, trying to build an image in her mind to understand the floor plan from the outside. It was two stories, looked new (because there was none of the soot that houses built before the siege had), and appeared to have none of the sleeping quarters in the street-facing side of it. "I'm going to walk around the rear. There's an alleyway there, right? Do you have lizards watching this part?"
Shifting his view slightly, Travis found two lizards behind the building in a thin alley. "There's an alley, but you'll be conspicuous walking down there. It has a high wall and a little yard, I think. It's not easy, but I can focus on this side if you're nearby."
Aware of a few eyes following her, Felna sighed and walked to where the street curled around where an alleyway finally split between the rows of buildings. She walked as casually as she could toward it, hoping the eyes were focused on her assets and not her intent.
The alley didn't smell, for which Felna was greatly thankful. She did notice that the walls, in places, had grime that she'd rather not have on her clothes or coat. Waiting until Travis told her she was behind the right building, she looked up at the shuttered windows and wall, then sighed. "If I get dirty doing this, you will be building me a bathhouse."
No fool, Travis said, "I'll build you one anyway. Or buy one. Whatever it takes."
"Travis, if you offer that to a woman, you had best follow through. Trust me, the view will be worth your effort." Despite her situation, Felna's tail swayed slowly behind her, giving an extra twitch or two at the end of each motion.
Spluttering a little, Travis' mental voice stammered in his attempt to reply, "I-I didn't— I mean, you're—"
Getting two good handholds and bracing a foot on the wall, Felna smiled into the shadows. "So you do appreciate the view? I was starting to wonder." Quick as her species were known to be, she'd reached the top of the wall and jumped. All four limbs made contact with the side of the house at the same time, as her formidable claws found purchase on the brickwork. She didn't need to mutter to Travis about not knowing exactly what to do next for him to tell her how close she was to the window. Turning her head to the side, she pressed one ear against the bricks.
The sound of something heavy sliding around met her ear first. Trying to focus past it, she heard a male voice but couldn't understand it. Slow, shallow breaths steadied her before she climbed around the shutters and toward the next one along. This time, when she pressed her ear to the wall, the voice was clearer.
"I hope she got it, but what am I going to do if she didn't?"
Travis cleared his non-existent throat and kept his voice low in Felna's head. "This was built two months ago. It was paid for by a merchant who has since left Northridge. We don't know who managed the transfer, but it is technically empty. I guess that was a cover for this lot."
Reaching behind her back, Felna drew a knife from a hidden sheath and worked at the shutters with it. She found the mechanism, slipped it up and into an unlocked position, then used the blade to lever the shutter opposite her open while leaning around the nearest one.
"Hello? Is someone there?" The voice's owner sounded young to Felna.
Without making herself visible, Felna replied, "Yes. You left me a note?"
"Oh, thank you. This entire thing has been terrible. Uncle told me I had to come out here to the edge of nowhere and neither Mommy nor Daddy could stop him, and I didn't recognize anyone but then I noticed your holy symbol was the same as Felice's." Stopping herself from talking too much, though she'd already spilled everything, the young noblewoman leaned out the window and turned her head to see Felna gripping to the wall. "All cat kin can do this, huh? Felice would sneak up and talk to me. She would teach me about the Sandwalker, and I'd imagine I was anywhere but locked up inside my uncle's mansion in the city."
Closing her eyes, Felna wanted to grab the noblewoman and run, but there was too much at stake—and she didn't know for certain she wasn't being played. "May the sand burn your paws…"
"… so you learn some sense."
"Who are the ones who brought you here?"
"They're my uncle's people. I tried to beg them to let me— Someone's coming."
No sooner did Felna lean back from the window than the noblewoman inside pulled it closed. She waited, hanging off the wall like a fuzzy barnacle, listening with her ear pressed against the brickwork.
"I heard voices," a man asked.
The young noblewoman groaned and said, "I was working on my diary. You know I talk to myself. I always read it out loud when I'm writing in it."
A gruff, "Humph," could be heard before the man said, "Make yourself ready. Your uncle's herald is arranging a meeting with the council to announce you have arrived." The sound of heavy footsteps retreating heralded the opening of the shutter again.
"I can't go with you now or they'll notice I'm missing too quickly. Can you come back?" the noblewoman asked.
"I'll see what I can accomplish. Stay strong, kitten." Felna braced and jumped backward, somersaulting and landing on the fence, then dropping back to the alleyway. Walking away from the house, Felna asked, "Trav, can you get me into that meeting with the council?"
"Pen is going to ask nicely. You should probably make your way there too."
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